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Predicting the effects of large earthequakes

Journal Article · · Energy and Technology Review (Livermore, California); (United States)
OSTI ID:7308840

The San Francisco Bay Area will long remember the Loma Prieta earthquake (magnitude 7.1) of 1989. Although the epicenter of the earthquake was 70 km south of San Francisco, its strong shaking caused loss of life and major damage to many buildings and transportation structures in the Bay Area, most notably the collapse of the Cypress Freeway and the loss of the part of the upper deck on the Oakland Bay Bridge. Laboratory engineers and scientists are developing a multidisciplinary computational method that will predict the effects of major earthquakes. Their immediate goal is to provide estimates of how critical public structures such as bridges, overpasses, dams, hospitals, power plants, or office buildings will respond to a large earthquake on a specific fault.

OSTI ID:
7308840
Journal Information:
Energy and Technology Review (Livermore, California); (United States), Journal Name: Energy and Technology Review (Livermore, California); (United States); ISSN 0884-5050; ISSN ETRED7
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English